BOOK ELEVEN

The eternal Creator and the Creation in time. Augustine ties together his memory of his
past life, his present experience, and his ardent desire to comprehend the mystery of
creation. This leads him to the questions of the mode and time of creation. He ponders the
mode of creation and shows that it was de nihilo and involved no alteration in the being
of God. He then considers the question of the beginning of the world and time and shows
that time and creation are cotemporal. But what is time? To this Augustine devotes a
brilliant analysis of the subjectivity of time and the relation of all temporal process to
the abiding eternity of God. From this, he prepares to turn to a detailed interpretation
of Gen. 1:1, 2.

1. Is it possible, O Lord, that, since thou art in eternity, thou art ignorant of what
I am saying to thee? Or, dost thou see in time an event at the time it occurs? If not,
then why am I recounting such a tale of things to thee? Certainly not in order to acquaint
thee with them through me; but, instead, that through them I may stir up my own love and
the love of my readers toward thee, so that all may say, "Great is the Lord and
greatly to be praised." I have said this before[406] and will say it again: "For
love of thy love I do it." So also we pray -- and yet Truth tells us, "Your
Father knoweth what things you need before you ask him."[407] Consequently, we lay
bare our feelings before thee, that, through our confessing to thee our plight and thy
mercies toward us, thou mayest go on to free us altogether, as thou hast already begun;
and that we may cease to be wretched in ourselves and blessed in thee -- since thou hast
called us to be poor in spirit, meek, mourners, hungering and athirst for righteousness,
merciful and pure in heart.[408] Thus I have told thee many things, as I could find
ability and will to do so, since it was thy will in the first place that I should confess
to thee, O Lord my God -- for "Thou art good and thy mercy endureth
forever."[409]

2. But how long would it take for the voice of my pen to tell enough of thy
exhortations and of all thy terrors and comforts and leadings by which thou didst bring me
to preach thy Word and to administer thy sacraments to thy people? And even if I could do
this sufficiently, the drops of time[410] are very precious to me and I have for a long
time been burning with the desire to meditate on thy law, and to confess in thy presence
my knowledge and ignorance of it -- from the first streaks of thy light in my mind and the
remaining darkness, until my weakness shall be swallowed up in thy strength. And I do not
wish to see those hours drained into anything else which I can find free from the
necessary care of the body, the exercise of the mind, and the service we owe to our fellow
men -- and what we give even if we do not owe it.

3. O Lord my God, hear my prayer and let thy mercy attend my longing. It does not burn
for itself alone but longs as well to serve the cause of fraternal love. Thou seest in my
heart that this is so. Let me offer the service of my mind and my tongue -- and give me
what I may in turn offer back to thee. For "I am needy and poor"; thou art rich
to all who call upon thee -- thou who, in thy freedom from care, carest for us. Trim away
from my lips, inwardly and outwardly, all rashness and lying. Let thy Scriptures be my
chaste delight. Let me not be deceived in them, nor deceive others from them. O Lord, hear
and pity! O Lord my God, light of the blind, strength of the weak -- and also the light of
those who see and the strength of the strong -- hearken to my soul and hear it crying from
the depths.[411] Unless thy ears attend us even in the depths, where should we go? To whom
should we cry?

"Thine is the day and the night is thine as well."[412] At thy bidding the
moments fly by. Grant me in them, then, an interval for my meditations on the hidden
things of thy law, nor close the door of thy law against us who knock. Thou hast not
willed that the deep secrets of all those pages should have been written in vain. Those
forests are not without their stags which keep retired within them, ranging and walking
and feeding, lying down and ruminating.[413] Perfect me, O Lord, and reveal their secrets
to me. Behold, thy voice is my joy; thy voice surpasses in abundance of delights. Give me
what I love, for I do love it. And this too is thy gift. Abandon not thy gifts and despise
not thy "grass" which thirsts for thee.[414] Let me confess to thee everything
that I shall have found in thy books and "let me hear the voice of thy
praise."[415] Let me drink from thee and "consider the wondrous things out of
thy law"[416] -- from the very beginning, when thou madest heaven and earth, and
thenceforward to the everlasting reign of thy Holy City with thee.

4. O Lord, have mercy on me and hear my petition. For my prayer is not for earthly
things, neither gold nor silver and precious stones, nor gorgeous apparel, nor honors and
power, nor fleshly pleasures, nor of bodily necessities in this life of our pilgrimage:
all of these things are "added" to those who seek thy Kingdom and thy
righteousness.[417]

Observe, O God, from whence comes my desire. The unrighteous have told me of delights
but not such as those in thy law, O Lord. Behold, this is the spring of my desire. See, O
Father, look and see -- and approve! Let it be pleasing in thy mercy's sight that I should
find favor with thee -- that the secret things of thy Word may be opened to me when I
knock. I beg this of thee by our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, the Man of thy right hand,
the Son of Man; whom thou madest strong for thy purpose as Mediator between thee and us;
through whom thou didst seek us when we were not seeking thee, but didst seek us so that
we might seek thee; thy Word, through whom thou madest all things, and me among them; thy
only Son, through whom thou hast called thy faithful people to adoption, and me among
them. I beseech it of thee through him who sitteth at thy right hand and maketh
intercession for us, "in whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and
knowledge."[418] It is he I seek in thy books. Moses wrote of him. He tells us so
himself; the Truth tells us so.

5. Let me hear and understand how in the beginning thou madest heaven and earth.[419]
Moses wrote of this; he wrote and passed on -- moving from thee to thee -- and he is now
no longer before me. If he were, I would lay hold on him and ask him and entreat him
solemnly that in thy name he would open out these things to me, and I would lend my bodily
ears to the sounds that came forth out of his mouth. If, however, he spoke in the Hebrew
language, the sounds would beat on my senses in vain, and nothing would touch my mind; but
if he spoke in Latin, I would understand what he said. But how should I then know whether
what he said was true? If I knew even this much, would it be that I knew it from him?
Indeed, within me, deep inside the chambers of my thought, Truth itself -- neither Hebrew,
nor Greek, nor Latin, nor barbarian, without any organs of voice and tongue, without the
sound of syllables -- would say, "He speaks the truth," and I should be assured
by this. Then I would confidently say to that man of thine, "You speak the
truth."[420] However, since I cannot inquire of Moses, I beseech thee, O Truth, from
whose fullness he spoke truth; I beseech thee, my God, forgive my sins, and as thou gavest
thy servant the gift to speak these things, grant me also the gift to understand them.

6. Look around; there are the heaven and the earth. They cry aloud that they were made,
for they change and vary. Whatever there is that has not been made, and yet has being, has
nothing in it that was not there before. This having something not already existent is
what it means to be changed and varied. Heaven and earth thus speak plainly that they did
not make themselves: "We are, because we have been made; we did not exist before we
came to be so that we could have made ourselves!" And the voice with which they speak
is simply their visible presence. It was thou, O Lord, who madest these things. Thou art
beautiful; thus they are beautiful. Thou art good, thus they are good. Thou art; thus they
are. But they are not as beautiful, nor as good, nor as truly real as thou their Creator
art. Compared with thee, they are neither beautiful nor good, nor do they even exist.
These things we know, thanks be to thee. Yet our knowledge is ignorance when it is
compared with thy knowledge.

7. But _how_ didst thou make the heaven and the earth, and what was the tool of such a
mighty work as thine? For it was not like a human worker fashioning body from body,
according to the fancy of his mind, able somehow or other to impose on it a form which the
mind perceived in itself by its inner eye (yet how should even he be able to do this, if
thou hadst not made that mind?). He imposes the form on something already existing and
having some sort of being, such as clay, or stone or wood or gold or such like (and where
would these things come from if thou hadst not furnished them?). For thou madest his body
for the artisan, and thou madest the mind which directs the limbs; thou madest the matter
from which he makes anything; thou didst create the capacity by which he understands his
art and sees within his mind what he may do with the things before him; thou gavest him
his bodily sense by which, as if he had an interpreter, he may communicate from mind to
matter what he proposes to do and report back to his mind what has been done, that the
mind may consult with the Truth which presideth over it as to whether what is done is well
done.

All these things praise thee, the Creator of them all. But how didst thou make them?
How, O God, didst thou make the heaven and earth? For truly, neither in heaven nor on
earth didst thou make heaven and earth -- nor in the air nor in the waters, since all of
these also belong to the heaven and the earth. Nowhere in the whole world didst thou make
the whole world, because there was no place where it could be made before it was made. And
thou didst not hold anything in thy hand from which to fashion the heaven and the
earth,[421] for where couldst thou have gotten what thou hadst not made in order to make
something with it? Is there, indeed, anything at all except because thou art? Thus thou
didst speak and they were made,[422] and by thy Word thou didst make them all.

8. But how didst thou speak? Was it in the same manner in which the voice came from the
cloud saying, "This is my beloved Son"[423]? For that voice sounded forth and
died away; it began and ended. The syllables sounded and passed away, the second after the
first, the third after the second, and thence in order, till the very last after all the
rest; and silence after the last. From this it is clear and plain that it was the action
of a creature, itself in time, which sounded that voice, obeying thy eternal will. And
what these words were which were formed at that time the outer ear conveyed to the
conscious mind, whose inner ear lay attentively open to thy eternal Word. But it compared
those words which sounded in time with thy eternal word sounding in silence and said:
"This is different; quite different! These words are far below me; they are not even
real, for they fly away and pass, but the Word of my God remains above me forever."
If, then, in words that sound and fade away thou didst say that heaven and earth should be
made, and thus _madest_ heaven and earth, then there was already some kind of corporeal
creature _before_ heaven and earth by whose motions in time that voice might have had its
occurrence in time. But there was nothing corporeal before the heaven and the earth; or if
there was, then it is certain that already, without a time-bound voice, thou hadst created
whatever it was out of which thou didst make the time-bound voice by which thou didst say,
"Let the heaven and the earth be made!" For whatever it was out of which such a
voice was made simply did not exist at all until it was made by thee. Was it decreed by
thy Word that a body might be made from which such words might come?

9. Thou dost call us, then, to understand the Word -- the God who is God with thee --
which is spoken eternally and by which all things are spoken eternally. For what was first
spoken was not finished, and then something else spoken until the whole series was spoken;
but all things, at the same time and forever. For, otherwise, we should have time and
change and not a true eternity, nor a true immortality.

This I know, O my God, and I give thanks. I know, I confess to thee, O Lord, and
whoever is not ungrateful for certain truths knows and blesses thee along with me. We
know, O Lord, this much we know: that in the same proportion as anything is not what it
was, and is what it was not, in that very same proportion it passes away or comes to be.
But there is nothing in thy Word that passes away or returns to its place; for it is truly
immortal and eternal. And, therefore, unto the Word coeternal with thee, at the same time
and always thou sayest all that thou sayest. And whatever thou sayest shall be made is
made, and thou makest nothing otherwise than by speaking. Still, not all the things that
thou dost make by speaking are made at the same time and always.

10. Why is this, I ask of thee, O Lord my God? I see it after a fashion, but I do not
know how to express it, unless I say that everything that begins to be and then ceases to
be begins and ceases when it is known in thy eternal Reason that it ought to begin or
cease -- in thy eternal Reason where nothing begins or ceases. And this is thy Word, which
is also "the Beginning," because it also speaks to us.[424] Thus, in the gospel,
he spoke through the flesh; and this sounded in the outward ears of men so that it might
be believed and sought for within, and so that it might be found in the eternal Truth, in
which the good and only Master teacheth all his disciples.[425] There, O Lord, I hear thy
voice, the voice of one speaking to me, since he who teacheth us speaketh to us. But he
that doth not teach us doth not really speak to us even when he speaketh. Yet who is it
that teacheth us unless it be the Truth immutable? For even when we are instructed by
means of the mutable creation, we are thereby led to the Truth immutable. There we learn
truly as we stand and hear him, and we rejoice greatly "because of the bridegroom's
voice,"[426] restoring us to the source whence our being comes. And therefore, unless
the Beginning remained immutable, there would then not be a place to which we might return
when we had wandered away. But when we return from error, it is through our gaining
knowledge that we return. In order for us to gain knowledge he teacheth us, since he is
the Beginning, and speaketh to us.

11. In this Beginning, O God, thou hast made heaven and earth -- through thy Word, thy
Son, thy Power, thy Wisdom, thy Truth: all wondrously speaking and wondrously creating.
Who shall comprehend such things and who shall tell of it? What is it that shineth through
me and striketh my heart without injury, so that I both shudder and burn? I shudder
because I am unlike it; I burn because I am like it. It is Wisdom itself that shineth
through me, clearing away my fog, which so readily overwhelms me so that I faint in it, in
the darkness and burden of my punishment. For my strength is brought down in neediness, so
that I cannot endure even my blessings until thou, O Lord, who hast been gracious to all
my iniquities, also healest all my infirmities -- for it is thou who "shalt redeem my
life from corruption, and crown me with loving-kindness and tender mercy, and shalt
satisfy my desire with good things so that my youth shall be renewed like the
eagle's."[427] For by this hope we are saved, and through patience we await thy
promises. Let him that is able hear thee speaking to his inner mind. I will cry out with
confidence because of thy own oracle, "How wonderful are thy works, O Lord; in wisdom
thou hast made them all."[428] And this Wisdom is the Beginning, and in that
Beginning thou hast made heaven and earth.

12. Now, are not those still full of their old carnal nature[429] who ask us:
"What was God doing _before_ he made heaven and earth? For if he was idle," they
say, "and doing nothing, then why did he not continue in that state forever -- doing
nothing, as he had always done? If any new motion has arisen in God, and a new will to
form a creature, which he had never before formed, how can that be a true eternity in
which an act of will occurs that was not there before? For the will of God is not a
created thing, but comes before the creation -- and this is true because nothing could be
created unless the will of the Creator came before it. The will of God, therefore,
pertains to his very Essence. Yet if anything has arisen in the Essence of God that was
not there before, then that Essence cannot truly be called eternal. But if it was the
eternal will of God that the creation should come to be, why, then, is not the creation
itself also from eternity?"[430]

13. Those who say these things do not yet understand thee, O Wisdom of God, O Light of
souls. They do not yet understand how the things are made that are made by and in thee.
They endeavor to comprehend eternal things, but their heart still flies about in the past
and future motions of created things, and is still unstable. Who shall hold it and fix it
so that it may come to rest for a little; and then, by degrees, glimpse the glory of that
eternity which abides forever; and then, comparing eternity with the temporal process in
which nothing abides, they may see that they are incommensurable? They would see that a
long time does not become long, except from the many separate events that occur in its
passage, which cannot be simultaneous. In the Eternal, on the other hand, nothing passes
away, but the whole is simultaneously present. But no temporal process is wholly
simultaneous. Therefore, let it[431] see that all time past is forced to move on by the
incoming future; that all the future follows from the past; and that all, past and future,
is created and issues out of that which is forever present. Who will hold the heart of man
that it may stand still and see how the eternity which always stands still is itself
neither future nor past but expresses itself in the times that are future and past? Can my
hand do this, or can the hand of my mouth bring about so difficult a thing even by
persuasion?

14. How, then, shall I respond to him who asks, "What was God doing _before_ he
made heaven and earth?" I do not answer, as a certain one is reported to have done
facetiously (shrugging off the force of the question). "He was preparing hell,"
he said, "for those who pry too deep." It is one thing to see the answer; it is
another to laugh at the questioner -- and for myself I do not answer these things thus.
More willingly would I have answered, "I do not know what I do not know," than
cause one who asked a deep question to be ridiculed -- and by such tactics gain praise for
a worthless answer.

Rather, I say that thou, our God, art the Creator of every creature. And if in the term
"heaven and earth" every creature is included, I make bold to say further:
"Before God made heaven and earth, he did not make anything at all. For if he did,
what did he make unless it were a creature?" I do indeed wish that I knew all that I
desire to know to my profit as surely as I know that no creature was made before any
creature was made.

15. But if the roving thought of someone should wander over the images of past time,
and wonder that thou, the Almighty God, the All-creating and All-sustaining, the Architect
of heaven and earth, didst for ages unnumbered abstain from so great a work before thou
didst actually do it, let him awake and consider that he wonders at illusions. For in what
temporal medium could the unnumbered ages that thou didst not make pass by, since thou art
the Author and Creator of all the ages? Or what periods of time would those be that were
not made by thee? Or how could they have already passed away if they had not already been?
Since, therefore, thou art the Creator of all times, if there was any time _before_ thou
madest heaven and earth, why is it said that thou wast abstaining from working? For thou
madest that very time itself, and periods could not pass by _before_ thou madest the whole
temporal procession. But if there was no time _before_ heaven and earth, how, then, can it
be asked, "What wast thou doing then?" For there was no "then" when
there was no time.

16. Nor dost thou precede any given period of time by another period of time. Else thou
wouldst not precede all periods of time. In the eminence of thy ever-present eternity,
thou precedest all times past, and extendest beyond all future times, for they are still
to come -- and when they have come, they will be past. But "Thou art always the
Selfsame and thy years shall have no end."[432] Thy years neither go nor come; but
ours both go and come in order that all separate moments may come to pass. All thy years
stand together as one, since they are abiding. Nor do thy years past exclude the years to
come because thy years do not pass away. All these years of ours shall be with thee, when
all of them shall have ceased to be. Thy years are but a day, and thy day is not
recurrent, but always today. Thy "today" yields not to tomorrow and does not
follow yesterday. Thy "today" is eternity. Therefore, thou didst generate the
Coeternal, to whom thou didst say, "This day I have begotten thee."[433] Thou
madest all time and before all times thou art, and there was never a time when there was
no time.

17. There was no time, therefore, when thou hadst not made anything, because thou hadst
made time itself. And there are no times that are coeternal with thee, because thou dost
abide forever; but if times should abide, they would not be times.

For what is time? Who can easily and briefly explain it? Who can even comprehend it in
thought or put the answer into words? Yet is it not true that in conversation we refer to
nothing more familiarly or knowingly than time? And surely we understand it when we speak
of it; we understand it also when we hear another speak of it.

What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to
him who asks me, I do not know. Yet I say with confidence that I know that if nothing
passed away, there would be no past time; and if nothing were still coming, there would be
no future time; and if there were nothing at all, there would be no present time.

But, then, how is it that there are the two times, past and future, when even the past
is now no longer and the future is now not yet? But if the present were always present,
and did not pass into past time, it obviously would not be time but eternity. If, then,
time present -- if it be time -- comes into existence only because it passes into time
past, how can we say that even this is, since the cause of its being is that it will cease
to be? Thus, can we not truly say that time _is_ only as it tends toward nonbeing?

18. And yet we speak of a long time and a short time; but never speak this way except
of time past and future. We call a hundred years ago, for example, a long time past. In
like manner, we should call a hundred years hence a long time to come. But we call ten
days ago a short time past; and ten days hence a short time to come. But in what sense is
something long or short that is nonexistent? For the past is not now, and the future is
not yet. Therefore, let us not say, "It _is_ long"; instead, let us say of the
past, "It _was_ long," and of the future, "It _will be_ long." And
yet, O Lord, my Light, shall not thy truth make mockery of man even here? For that long
time past: was it long when it was already past, or when it was still present? For it
might have been long when there was a period that could be long, but when it was past, it
no longer was. In that case, that which was not at all could not be long. Let us not,
therefore, say, "Time past was long," for we shall not discover what it was that
was long because, since it is past, it no longer exists. Rather, let us say that
"time _present_ was long, because when it was present it _was_ long." For then
it had not yet passed on so as not to be, and therefore it still was in a state that could
be called long. But after it passed, it ceased to be long simply because it ceased to be.

19. Let us, therefore, O human soul, see whether present time can be long, for it has
been given you to feel and measure the periods of time. How, then, will you answer me?

Is a hundred years when present a long time? But, first, see whether a hundred years
can be present at once. For if the first year in the century is current, then it is
present time, and the other ninety and nine are still future. Therefore, they are not yet.
But, then, if the second year is current, one year is already past, the second present,
and all the rest are future. And thus, if we fix on any middle year of this century as
present, those before it are past, those after it are future. Therefore, a hundred years
cannot be present all at once.

Let us see, then, whether the year that is now current can be present. For if its first
month is current, then the rest are future; if the second, the first is already past, and
the remainder are not yet. Therefore, the current year is not present all at once. And if
it is not present as a whole, then the year is not present. For it takes twelve months to
make the year, from which each individual month which is current is itself present one at
a time, but the rest are either past or future.

20. Thus it comes out that time present, which we found was the only time that could be
called "long," has been cut down to the space of scarcely a single day. But let
us examine even that, for one day is never present as a whole. For it is made up of
twenty-four hours, divided between night and day. The first of these hours has the rest of
them as future, and the last of them has the rest as past; but any of those between has
those that preceded it as past and those that succeed it as future. And that one hour
itself passes away in fleeting fractions. The part of it that has fled is past; what
remains is still future. If any fraction of time be conceived that cannot now be divided
even into the most minute momentary point, this alone is what we may call time present.
But this flies so rapidly from future to past that it cannot be extended by any delay. For
if it is extended, it is then divided into past and future. But the present has no
extension[434] whatever.

Where, therefore, is that time which we may call "long"? Is it future?
Actually we do not say of the future, "It is long," for it has not yet come to
be, so as to be long. Instead, we say, "It will be long." _When_ will it be? For
since it is future, it will not be long, for what may be long is not yet. It will be long
only when it passes from the future which is not as yet, and will have begun to be
present, so that there can be something that may be long. But in that case, time present
cries aloud, in the words we have already heard, that it cannot be "long."

21. And yet, O Lord, we do perceive intervals of time, and we compare them with each
other, and we say that some are longer and others are shorter. We even measure how much
longer or shorter this time may be than that time. And we say that this time is twice as
long, or three times as long, while this other time is only just as long as that other.
But we measure the passage of time when we measure the intervals of perception. But who
can measure times past which now are no longer, or times future which are not yet --
unless perhaps someone will dare to say that what does not exist can be measured?
Therefore, while time is passing, it can be perceived and measured; but when it is past,
it cannot, since it is not.

Who is there who will tell me that there are not three times -- as we learned when boys
and as we have also taught boys -- time past, time present, and time future? Who can say
that there is only time present because the other two do not exist? Or do they also exist;
but when, from the future, time becomes present, it proceeds from some secret place; and
when, from times present, it becomes past, it recedes into some secret place? For where
have those men who have foretold the future seen the things foretold, if then they were
not yet existing? For what does not exist cannot be seen. And those who tell of things
past could not speak of them as if they were true, if they did not see them in their
minds. These things could in no way be discerned if they did not exist. There are
therefore times present and times past.

23. Give me leave, O Lord, to seek still further. O my Hope, let not my purpose be
confounded. For if there are times past and future, I wish to know where they are. But if
I have not yet succeeded in this, I still know that wherever they are, they are not there
as future or past, but as present. For if they are there as future, they are there as
"not yet"; if they are there as past, they are there as "no longer."
Wherever they are and whatever they are they exist therefore only as present. Although we
tell of past things as true, they are drawn out of the memory -- not the things
themselves, which have already passed, but words constructed from the images of the
perceptions which were formed in the mind, like footprints in their passage through the
senses. My childhood, for instance, which is no longer, still exists in time past, which
does not now exist. But when I call to mind its image and speak of it, I see it in the
present because it is still in my memory. Whether there is a similar explanation for the
foretelling of future events -- that is, of the images of things which are not yet seen as
if they were already existing -- I confess, O my God, I do not know. But this I certainly
do know: that we generally think ahead about our future actions, and this premeditation is
in time present; but that the action which we premeditate is not yet, because it is still
future. When we shall have started the action and have begun to do what we were
premeditating, then that action will be in time present, because then it is no longer in
time future.

24. Whatever may be the manner of this secret foreseeing of future things, nothing can
be seen except what exists. But what exists now is not future, but present. When,
therefore, they say that future events are seen, it is not the events themselves, for they
do not exist as yet (that is, they are still in time future), but perhaps, instead, their
causes and their signs are seen, which already do exist. Therefore, to those already
beholding these causes and signs, they are not future, but present, and from them future
things are predicted because they are conceived in the mind. These conceptions, however,
exist _now_, and those who predict those things see these conceptions before them in time
present.

Let me take an example from the vast multitude and variety of such things. I see the
dawn; I predict that the sun is about to rise. What I see is in time present, what I
predict is in time future -- not that the sun is future, for it already exists; but its
rising is future, because it is not yet. Yet I could not predict even its rising, unless I
had an image of it in my mind; as, indeed, I do even now as I speak. But that dawn which I
see in the sky is not the rising of the sun (though it does precede it), nor is it a
conception in my mind. These two[435] are seen in time present, in order that the event
which is in time future may be predicted.

Future events, therefore, are not yet. And if they are not yet, they do not exist. And
if they do not exist, they cannot be seen at all, but they can be predicted from things
present, which now are and are seen.

25. Now, therefore, O Ruler of thy creatures, what is the mode by which thou teachest
souls those things which are still future? For thou hast taught thy prophets. How dost
thou, to whom nothing is future, teach future things -- or rather teach things present
from the signs of things future? For what does not exist certainly cannot be taught. This
way of thine is too far from my sight; it is too great for me, I cannot attain to it.[436]
But I shall be enabled by thee, when thou wilt grant it, O sweet Light of my secret eyes.

26. But even now it is manifest and clear that there are neither times future nor times
past. Thus it is not properly said that there are three times, past, present, and future.
Perhaps it might be said rightly that there are three times: a time present of things
past; a time present of things present; and a time present of things future. For these
three do coexist somehow in the soul, for otherwise I could not see them. The time present
of things past is memory; the time present of things present is direct experience; the
time present of things future is expectation.[437] If we are allowed to speak of these
things so, I see three times, and I grant that there are three. Let it still be said,
then, as our misapplied custom has it: "There are three times, past, present, and
future." I shall not be troubled by it, nor argue, nor object -- always provided that
what is said is understood, so that neither the future nor the past is said to exist now.
There are but few things about which we speak properly -- and many more about which we
speak improperly -- though we understand one another's meaning.

27. I have said, then, that we measure periods of time as they pass so that we can say
that this time is twice as long as that one or that this is just as long as that, and so
on for the other fractions of time which we can count by measuring.

So, then, as I was saying, we measure periods of time as they pass. And if anyone asks
me, "How do you know this?", I can answer: "I know because we measure. We
could not measure things that do not exist, and things past and future do not exist."
But how do we measure present time since it has no extension? It is measured while it
passes, but when it has passed it is not measured; for then there is nothing that could be
measured. But whence, and how, and whither does it pass while it is being measured?
Whence, but from the future? Which way, save through the present? Whither, but into the
past? Therefore, from what is not yet, through what has no length, it passes into what is
now no longer. But what do we measure, unless it is a time of some length? For we cannot
speak of single, and double, and triple, and equal, and all the other ways in which we
speak of time, except in terms of the length of the periods of time. But in what
"length," then, do we measure passing time? Is it in the future, from which it
passes over? But what does not yet exist cannot be measured. Or, is it in the present,
through which it passes? But what has no length we cannot measure. Or is it in the past
into which it passes? But what is no longer we cannot measure.

28. My soul burns ardently to understand this most intricate enigma. O Lord my God, O
good Father, I beseech thee through Christ, do not close off these things, both the
familiar and the obscure, from my desire. Do not bar it from entering into them; but let
their light dawn by thy enlightening mercy, O Lord. Of whom shall I inquire about these
things? And to whom shall I confess my ignorance of them with greater profit than to thee,
to whom these studies of mine (ardently longing to understand thy Scriptures) are not a
bore? Give me what I love, for I do love it; and this thou hast given me. O Father, who
truly knowest how to give good gifts to thy children, give this to me. Grant it, since I
have undertaken to understand it, and hard labor is my lot until thou openest it. I
beseech thee, through Christ and in his name, the Holy of Holies, let no man interrupt me.
"For I have believed, and therefore do I speak."[438] This is my hope; for this
I live: that I may contemplate the joys of my Lord.[439] Behold, thou hast made my days
grow old, and they pass away -- and how I do not know.

We speak of this time and that time, and these times and those times: "How long
ago since he said this?" "How long ago since he did this?" "How long
ago since I saw that?" "This syllable is twice as long as that single short
syllable." These words we say and hear, and we are understood and we understand. They
are quite commonplace and ordinary, and still the meaning of these very same things lies
deeply hid and its discovery is still to come.

29. I once heard a learned man say that the motions of the sun, moon, and stars
constituted time; and I did not agree. For why should not the motions of all bodies
constitute time? What if the lights of heaven should cease, and a potter's wheel still
turn round: would there be no time by which we might measure those rotations and say
either that it turned at equal intervals, or, if it moved now more slowly and now more
quickly, that some rotations were longer and others shorter? And while we were saying
this, would we not also be speaking in time? Or would there not be in our words some
syllables that were long and others short, because the first took a longer time to sound,
and the others a shorter time? O God, grant men to see in a small thing the notions that
are common[440] to all things, both great and small. Both the stars and the lights of
heaven are "for signs and seasons, and for days and years."[441] This is
doubtless the case, but just as I should not say that the circuit of that wooden wheel was
a day, neither would that learned man say that there was, therefore, no time.

30. I thirst to know the power and the nature of time, by which we measure the motions
of bodies, and say, for example, that this motion is twice as long as that. For I ask,
since the word "day" refers not only to the length of time that the sun is above
the earth (which separates day from night), but also refers to the sun's entire circuit
from east all the way around to east -- on account of which we can say, "So many days
have passed" (the nights being included when we say, "So many days," and
their lengths not counted separately) -- since, then, the day is ended by the motion of
the sun and by his passage from east to east, I ask whether the motion itself is the day,
or whether the day is the period in which that motion is completed; or both? For if the
sun's passage is the day, then there would be a day even if the sun should finish his
course in as short a period as an hour. If the motion itself is the day, then it would not
be a day if from one sunrise to another there were a period no longer than an hour. But
the sun would have to go round twenty-four times to make just one day. If it is both, then
that could not be called a day if the sun ran his entire course in the period of an hour;
nor would it be a day if, while the sun stood still, as much time passed as the sun
usually covered during his whole course, from morning to morning. I shall, therefore, not
ask any more what it is that is called a day, but rather what time is, for it is by time
that we measure the circuit of the sun, and would be able to say that it was finished in
half the period of time that it customarily takes if it were completed in a period of only
twelve hours. If, then, we compare these periods, we could call one of them a single and
the other a double period, as if the sun might run his course from east to east sometimes
in a single period and sometimes in a double period.

Let no man tell me, therefore, that the motions of the heavenly bodies constitute time.
For when the sun stood still at the prayer of a certain man in order that he might gain
his victory in battle, the sun stood still but time went on. For in as long a span of time
as was sufficient the battle was fought and ended.[442]

I see, then, that time is a certain kind of extension. But do I see it, or do I only
seem to? Thou, O Light and Truth, wilt show me.

31. Dost thou command that I should agree if anyone says that time is "the motion
of a body"? Thou dost not so command. For I hear that no body is moved but in time;
this thou tellest me. But that the motion of a body itself is time I do not hear; thou
dost not say so. For when a body is moved, I measure by time how long it was moving from
the time when it began to be moved until it stopped. And if I did not see when it began to
be moved, and if it continued to move so that I could not see when it stopped, I could not
measure the movement, except from the time when I began to see it until I stopped. But if
I look at it for a long time, I can affirm only that the time is long but not how long it
may be. This is because when we say, "How long?", we are speaking comparatively
as: "This is as long as that," or, "This is twice as long as that"; or
other such similar ratios. But if we were able to observe the point in space where and
from which the body, which is moved, comes and the point to which it is moved; or if we
can observe its parts moving as in a wheel, we can say how long the movement of the body
took or the movement of its parts from this place to that. Since, therefore, the motion of
a body is one thing, and the norm by which we measure how long it takes is another thing,
we cannot see which of these two is to be called time. For, although a body is sometimes
moved and sometimes stands still, we measure not only its motion but also its rest as
well; and both by time! Thus we say, "It stood still as long as it moved," or,
"It stood still twice or three times as long as it moved" -- or any other ratio
which our measuring has either determined or imagined, either roughly or precisely,
according to our custom. Therefore, time is not the motion of a body.

32. And I confess to thee, O Lord, that I am still ignorant as to what time is. And
again I confess to thee, O Lord, that I know that I am speaking all these things in time,
and that I have already spoken of time a long time, and that "very long" is not
long except when measured by the duration of time. How, then, do I know this, when I do
not know what time is? Or, is it possible that I do not know how I can express what I do
know? Alas for me! I do not even know the extent of my own ignorance. Behold, O my God, in
thy presence I do not lie. As my heart is, so I speak. Thou shalt light my candle; thou, O
Lord my God, wilt enlighten my darkness.[443]

33. Does not my soul most truly confess to thee that I do measure intervals of time?
But what is it that I thus measure, O my God, and how is it that I do not know what I
measure? I measure the motion of a body by time, but the time itself I do not measure.
But, truly, could I measure the motion of a body -- how long it takes, how long it is in
motion from this place to that -- unless I could measure the time in which it is moving?

How, then, do I measure this time itself? Do we measure a longer time by a shorter
time, as we measure the length of a crossbeam in terms of cubits?[444] Thus, we can say
that the length of a long syllable is measured by the length of a short syllable and thus
say that the long syllable is double. So also we measure the length of poems by the length
of the lines, and the length of the line by the length of the feet, and the length of the
feet by the length of the syllable, and the length of the long syllables by the length of
the short ones. We do not measure by pages -- for in that way we would measure space
rather than time -- but when we speak the words as they pass by we say: "It is a long
stanza, because it is made up of so many verses; they are long verses because they consist
of so many feet; they are long feet because they extend over so many syllables; this is a
long syllable because it is twice the length of a short one."

But no certain measure of time is obtained this way; since it is possible that if a
shorter verse is pronounced slowly, it may take up more time than a longer one if it is
pronounced hurriedly. The same would hold for a stanza, or a foot, or a syllable. From
this it appears to me that time is nothing other than extendedness;[445] but extendedness
of what I do not know. This is a marvel to me. The extendedness may be of the mind itself.
For what is it I measure, I ask thee, O my God, when I say either, roughly, "This
time is longer than that," or, more precisely, "This is _twice_ as long as
that." I know that I am measuring time. But I am not measuring the future, for it is
not yet; and I am not measuring the present because it is extended by no length; and I am
not measuring the past because it no longer is. What is it, therefore, that I am
measuring? Is it time in its passage, but not time past [praetereuntia tempora, non
praeterita]? This is what I have been saying.

34. Press on, O my mind, and attend with all your power. God is our Helper: "it is
he that hath made us and not we ourselves."[446] Give heed where the truth begins to
dawn.[447] Suppose now that a bodily voice begins to sound, and continues to sound -- on
and on -- and then ceases. Now there is silence. The voice is past, and there is no longer
a sound. It was future before it sounded, and could not be measured because it was not
yet; and now it cannot be measured because it is no longer. Therefore, while it was
sounding, it might have been measured because then there was something that could be
measured. But even then it did not stand still, for it was in motion and was passing away.
Could it, on that account, be any more readily measured? For while it was passing away, it
was being extended into some interval of time in which it might be measured, since the
present has no length. Supposing, though, that it might have been measured -- then also
suppose that another voice had begun to sound and is still sounding without any
interruption to break its continued flow. We can measure it only while it is sounding, for
when it has ceased to sound it will be already past and there will not be anything there
that can be measured. Let us measure it exactly; and let us say how much it is. But while
it is sounding, it cannot be measured except from the instant when it began to sound, down
to the final moment when it left off. For we measure the time interval itself from some
beginning point to some end. This is why a voice that has not yet ended cannot be
measured, so that one could say how long or how briefly it will continue. Nor can it be
said to be equal to another voice or single or double in comparison to it or anything like
this. But when it is ended, it is no longer. How, therefore, may it be measured? And yet
we measure times; not those which are not yet, nor those which no longer are, nor those
which are stretched out by some delay, nor those which have no limit. Therefore, we
measure neither times future nor times past, nor times present, nor times passing by; and
yet we do measure times.

35. Deus Creator omnium[448]: this verse of eight syllables alternates between short
and long syllables. The four short ones -- that is, the first, third, fifth, and seventh
-- are single in relation to the four long ones -- that is, the second, fourth, sixth, and
eighth. Each of the long ones is double the length of each of the short ones. I affirm
this and report it, and common sense perceives that this indeed is the case. By common
sense, then, I measure a long syllable by a short one, and I find that it is twice as
long. But when one sounds after another, if the first be short and the latter long, how
can I hold the short one and how can I apply it to the long one as a measure, so that I
can discover that the long one is twice as long, when, in fact, the long one does not
begin to sound until the short one leaves off sounding? That same long syllable I do not
measure as present, since I cannot measure it until it is ended; but its ending is its
passing away.

What is it, then, that I can measure? Where is the short syllable by which I measure?
Where is the long one that I am measuring? Both have sounded, have flown away, have passed
on, and are no longer. And still I measure, and I confidently answer -- as far as a
trained ear can be trusted -- that this syllable is single and that syllable double. And I
could not do this unless they both had passed and were ended. Therefore I do not measure
them, for they do not exist any more. But I measure something in my memory which remains
fixed.

36. It is in you, O mind of mine, that I measure the periods of time. Do not shout me
down that it exists [objectively]; do not overwhelm yourself with the turbulent flood of
your impressions. In you, as I have said, I measure the periods of time. I measure as time
present the impression that things make on you as they pass by and what remains after they
have passed by -- I do not measure the things themselves which have passed by and left
their impression on you. This is what I measure when I measure periods of time. Either,
then, these are the periods of time or else I do not measure time at all.

What are we doing when we measure silence, and say that this silence has lasted as long
as that voice lasts? Do we not project our thought to the measure of a sound, as if it
were then sounding, so that we can say something concerning the intervals of silence in a
given span of time? For, even when both the voice and the tongue are still, we review --
in thought -- poems and verses, and discourse of various kinds or various measures of
motions, and we specify their time spans -- how long this is in relation to that -- just
as if we were speaking them aloud. If anyone wishes to utter a prolonged sound, and if, in
forethought, he has decided how long it should be, that man has already in silence gone
through a span of time, and committed his sound to memory. Thus he begins to speak and his
voice sounds until it reaches the predetermined end. It has truly sounded and will go on
sounding. But what is already finished has already sounded and what remains will still
sound. Thus it passes on, until the present intention carries the future over into the
past. The past increases by the diminution of the future until by the consumption of all
the future all is past.[449]

37. But how is the future diminished or consumed when it does not yet exist? Or how
does the past, which exists no longer, increase, unless it is that in the mind in which
all this happens there are three functions? For the mind expects, it attends, and it
remembers; so that what it expects passes into what it remembers by way of what it attends
to. Who denies that future things do not exist as yet? But still there is already in the
mind the expectation of things still future. And who denies that past things now exist no
longer? Still there is in the mind the memory of things past. Who denies that time present
has no length, since it passes away in a moment? Yet, our attention has a continuity and
it is through this that what is present may proceed to become absent. Therefore, future
time, which is nonexistent, is not long; but "a long future" is "a long
expectation of the future." Nor is time past, which is now no longer, long; a
"long past" is "a long memory of the past."

38. I am about to repeat a psalm that I know. Before I begin, my attention encompasses
the whole, but once I have begun, as much of it as becomes past while I speak is still
stretched out in my memory. The span of my action is divided between my memory, which
contains what I have repeated, and my expectation, which contains what I am about to
repeat. Yet my attention is continually present with me, and through it what was future is
carried over so that it becomes past. The more this is done and repeated, the more the
memory is enlarged -- and expectation is shortened -- until the whole expectation is
exhausted. Then the whole action is ended and passed into memory. And what takes place in
the entire psalm takes place also in each individual part of it and in each individual
syllable. This also holds in the even longer action of which that psalm is only a portion.
The same holds in the whole life of man, of which all the actions of men are parts. The
same holds in the whole age of the sons of men, of which all the lives of men are parts.

39. But "since thy loving-kindness is better than life itself,"[450] observe
how my life is but a stretching out, and how thy right hand has upheld me in my Lord, the
Son of Man, the Mediator between thee, the One, and us, the many -- in so many ways and by
so many means. Thus through him I may lay hold upon him in whom I am also laid hold upon;
and I may be gathered up from my old way of life to follow that One and to forget that
which is behind, no longer stretched out but now pulled together again -- stretching forth
not to what shall be and shall pass away but to those things that _are_ before me. Not
distractedly now, but intently, I follow on for the prize of my heavenly calling,[451]
where I may hear the sound of thy praise and contemplate thy delights, which neither come
to be nor pass away.

But now my years are spent in mourning.[452] And thou, O Lord, art my comfort, my
eternal Father. But I have been torn between the times, the order of which I do not know,
and my thoughts, even the inmost and deepest places of my soul, are mangled by various
commotions until I shall flow together into thee, purged and molten in the fire of thy
love.

40. And I will be immovable and fixed in thee, and thy truth will be my mold. And I
shall not have to endure the questions of those men who, as if in a morbid disease, thirst
for more than they can hold and say, "What did God make before he made heaven and
earth?" or, "How did it come into his mind to make something when he had never
before made anything?" Grant them, O Lord, to consider well what they are saying; and
grant them to see that where there is no time they cannot say "never." When,
therefore, he is said "never to have made" something -- what is this but to say
that it was made in no time at all? Let them therefore see that there could be no time
without a created world, and let them cease to speak vanity of this kind. Let them also be
stretched out to those things which are before them, and understand that thou, the eternal
Creator of all times, art before all times and that no times are coeternal with thee; nor
is any creature, even if there is a creature "above time."

41. O Lord my God, what a chasm there is in thy deep secret! How far short of it have
the consequences of my sins cast me? Heal my eyes, that I may enjoy thy light. Surely, if
there is a mind that so greatly abounds in knowledge and foreknowledge, to which all
things past and future are as well known as one psalm is well known to me, that mind would
be an exceeding marvel and altogether astonishing. For whatever is past and whatever is
yet to come would be no more concealed from him than the past and future of that psalm
were hidden from me when I was chanting it: how much of it had been sung from the
beginning and what and how much still remained till the end. But far be it from thee, O
Creator of the universe, and Creator of our souls and bodies -- far be it from thee that
thou shouldst merely know all things past and future. Far, far more wonderfully, and far
more mysteriously thou knowest them. For it is not as the feelings of one singing familiar
songs, or hearing a familiar song in which, because of his expectation of words still to
come and his remembrance of those that are past, his feelings are varied and his senses
are divided. This is not the way that anything happens to thee, who art unchangeably
eternal, that is, the truly eternal Creator of minds. As in the beginning thou knewest
both the heaven and the earth without any change in thy knowledge, so thou didst make
heaven and earth in their beginnings without any division in thy action.[453] Let him who
understands this confess to thee; and let him who does not understand also confess to
thee! Oh, exalted as thou art, still the humble in heart are thy dwelling place! For thou
liftest them who are cast down and they fall not for whom thou art the Most High.[454]